Log Buffer #95: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBA

Welcome to the 95th edition of the Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs! The number 95 seems to be a popular number, as it's also the outside temperature here near San Diego, so grab something refreshing to drink, edition 95 is taking off.


In the MySQL 'sphere...

Discussions from the MySQL Conference continue. Arjen Lentz starts an email list for community organized conferences named OurSQL-conference. As open source projects go, the discussion turned to source code and to keep the discussion alive, OurSQL-sources was created. Thanks to Sheeri K. Cabral for the OurSQL name. If you haven't seen nor heard of Technocation, be sure to stop by and say hi to Dick. If you're a fan of cheatsheets, the EXPLAIN Cheatsheet is available for download.

MySQL monitoring is a hot topic, with Baron Schwartz blogging about Cacti and monitoring MySQL. This is one area of MySQL that needs a boost from the community.

A technology I've enjoyed using, and have blogged about, is DRBD and its application to MySQL. Florian writes in response to DRBD and MySQL Just Say No, with the appropriate response of DRBD and MySQL Just Say Yes! MySQL Performance Blog also weighs in on the DRDB vs Replication Battle.

When your database performance needs to heat up, be sure to investigate how disk performance can benefit single client workloads from MySQL Performance Blog. InnoDB tables are MySQL's default transaction oriented storage engine. Two in depth articles on InnoDB Plugin Part I and Part II compression performance may stoke the fire in your server.

High temps tend to kill servers, and having backups is very important. We've all heard of SQL injections, but not in the context of having reliable backups, as well as tested procedures to restore your system. Farhan blogs about being prepared for SQL injection attacks roasting your database. Be prepared.

Is there a positive SQL Injection attack? Bruce Schneier thinks so.

Pythian announces a multitude of videos from MySQL Conference 2008 are available!

Alan Hargreaves' blog discusses the biggest news from the MySQL Conference 2008.

Lenz Grimmer blogs about 186 MySQL Gems from Sun bloggers.


On to Oracle...

Jarneil writes about moving data within disk groups inside of Oracle. Jonathan Lewis gives a rundown where order by is causing issues.

Oracle licensing is hitting the blogs at Radio Free Tooting.


SQL Server

Kimberly L. Tripp provides a plethora of SQL related links with her accidental DBA workshop. Aaron Bertrand shares his opinion on money, the money data type that is and follows that up with SQL Injection and how to protect your SQL server. Later in the week, Port25 shares some more info on SQL injection.

A close cousin to Carsten's pop quizzes, Denis Gobo gives a quick teaser on ISNUMERIC, what's your answer? (Don't peek at the comments!)

Microsoft has big plans on keeping SQL server updated, and Benjamin Jones follows up with SP3 for SQL Server 2005.

Aussie SQL Server Bloggers write about dealing with duplicate indexes on tables with precisely identical definitions.

We all know MySQL has a query optimizer, and Craig Freedman's blog discusses SQL Server optimizer with conversion and arithmetic errors.


Returning closer to the Sun, PostgreSQL

Most of us have to work in a mixed open source and Microsoft environment. Postgres Online Journal blogs about setting up PostgreSQL as a linked server to 64bit SQL Server, and discusses calculating running totals and sums too.

Finding MySQL DBAs is a challenge. Josh Berkus tackles the exact same issues in finding PostgreSQL talent.

In the not sure where to fit this dept...

The age old debate: is it "See-qwel" or "S-Q-L"? from the OracleSponge blog. I know some say "MySeeQwel" or "MyS-Q-L", but "MeSQL"?? Check out 451 CAOS Theory on their take.


Overflow

I'd like to thank Dave at the Pythian Group for inviting me to edit this week's Log Buffer. All typos, deliberate mispelings, grammatical or punctuational errors are features, that are copyrighted and trademarked entities of Mark Schoonover. :-)